Fabrics are required in a wide variety of applications and industries, including for instance the fashion and furniture industries, as well as being useful in a number of medical applications. Most commonly fabrics are woven fabrics, although it is also known to produce non-woven fabrics. The industries which require fabrics have a need for the provision of fabrics by methods which are flexible and convenient, and in particular methods which allow fabrics to be formed quickly and easily, from a variety of different fabric materials and in a variety of different shapes.
Our publication WO 03/104540 discloses a composition comprising fibres, a binder and a diluent which can be sprayed to produce a non-woven fabric. Producing fabric by spraying is advantageous as it allows application of the fabric to a wide variety of different surfaces and the fabric can conform to the contours of the surface.
The Examples in WO 03/104540 teach that polyvinylacetate or polyvinylbutyrate is used as a binder with ethyl acetate, acetone or methanol as a diluent. The general teaching suggests that diluents are selected from the group consisting of water, alcohols, ketones or esters having between 1 and 12 carbon atoms. Suitable binders are said to be polymeric, preferably polyvinylacetate. The composition can be sprayed using a spray gun, aerosol cans or artist=s airbrush.
Although the compositions exemplified in this publication give good results, there is room for improvement, especially in the formulation of compositions which give optimum results when sprayed from a standard aerosol can.
The present invention thus has the objective of providing a composition that can be used to produce fabrics having an improved texture and which gives excellent results when sprayed as an aerosol using a propellant.